Why a man suffering a cold will be in agony, but a woman will shrug it off: Survey finds men are martyrs when it comes to illness
Men are more vocal about their 'excruciating' headaches and 'crippling' colds
While 79% of women will battle on regardless, men will moan to everyone
Other words men regularly use to refer to their aches and pains include 'absolute agony', 'unbearable' and 'killing me'
Does man flu exist? If you're a man, it most probably does.
A survey has found that when it comes to winter illness, men are more vocal about their 'excruciating' headaches and 'crippling' colds.
While 79 per cent of women will battle on regardless, men will moan to all and sundry about their ailments, the poll of 2,000 adults found.
And while women generally try to ignore the onset of a cold or fever, men will grumble about 'being on death's door' and battling an illness which 'would kill a weaker man'.
Other words men regularly use to refer to their aches and pains include 'absolute agony', 'unbearable' and killing me', the survey found.
According to the research, for Superdrug, just under half of women often don't believe their partner when he claims to be ill, with 55 per cent believing the symptoms are often exaggerated.
Similarly, 55 per cent of men are accused of having a common cold when they are claiming to have full blown flu.
The study shows that when coming down with an illness, a third of men tend to mope around on the sofa all evening while the same percentage tries to get on with what they are doing, but end up whinging all the time.
In contrast, most women don't really let illness bother them, and try to carry on as normal.
And even if a man doesn't verbally moan about his ailments, he can be vocal in other ways.
One in five men are accused of coughing louder than necessary, for example.
A further fifth of men are caught sighing all the time, while 15 per cent are said to clutch the most painful part of their body.
However, despite feeling awful, 66 per cent of men will refuse to seek help from a pharmacist, medical professional or doctor, preferring to self-medicate or 'put up' with the illness.
The nation's men are more likely to moan about a cold than any other illness, with 57 per cent of women claiming their other half complains constantly when they have a runny nose.
The second most troublesome illness for men is a sore throat (53 per cent), while 45 per cent can't cope with a headache and four in 10 are wiped out with a cough.
But when questioned, 64 per cent of men reckon they are able to ignore the onset of a cold or fever, while seven in 10 reckon they battle on regardless of how they are feeling when ill.
Mel Wilson, Superdrug head of health, said: 'If the nation's women are to be believed, men do seem to suffer more with their ailments, or at least suffer more publicly.
'Whether this is because women aren't overly sympathetic, or because men generally find it harder to cope is unclear, but the language men are using to describe their ailments is certainly interesting and hints towards a bit of an over exaggeration.'
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